Operation of most towers in Kashmir restored
4 Jun 2015 5:57 AM IST
Swinging into action, authorities, including police, have restored operation of over 600 of the 1,058 mobile transmission towers in Kashmir which had been shut in the wake of militant attacks and threats even as the Centre on Wednesday rushed a team to assess the situation.
The 1,058 towers, out of the 2,903 towers of various telecom companies installed across Kashmir Valley, had been shut down due to attacks and threats by militants to landlords in whose premises the equipment were installed, according to highly placed police sources.
Police, along with representatives of the telecom companies, have made 609 mobile transmission towers functional within a short span and efforts are underway to restore operations of other towers affected, the sources said.
Sopore was the worst-hit area where all but two of the 177 towers were shut down in the wake of a series of attacks by militants in which two persons died and three were injured.
The sources said police has been able to restore 59 towers -- mostly hub sites and those located close to security forces camps and police stations.
In Baramulla district, excluding Sopore, 110 of the 185 affected towers have been restored while in Srinagar -- the summer capital of the state -- 91 of the 141 affected towers have been restored. Srinagar has a <g data-gr-id="19">tower</g> strength of 714.
Anantnag district in south Kashmir and Kupwara, barring Handwara police district, in <g data-gr-id="18">north</g> were unaffected with all the 485 towers there remaining functional.
NC leader finds nothing wrong in Pak flags being raised in valley
Senior National Conference leader Mustafa Kamal on Wednesday kicked up a controversy by suggesting that there was nothing wrong in Pakistani flags being raised in <g data-gr-id="37">Kashmir</g> but his party chief and nephew Omar Abdullah said the party "does not subscribe to these views". Kamal, former minister in Jammu and Kashmir and brother of National Conference patron Farooq Abdullah, questioned why the central government gets "perturbed" over raising of Pakistani flags in the Valley and said India should "respect" the neighbour's flag.
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